A Blue Sack of Red Sand
by Ificationer
Summary: A mercenary, working on Omega, has been given a way out of his miserable life. Finding old friends and getting new ones. Traveling among uncharted stars and making discoveries. Meanwhile the tension is rising between the merc groups, resulting in a handful of consequences. Set 15 years after Mass Effect 3 with a bunch of OCs. Can be considered AU.


**A Blue Sack of Red Sand**

**Chapter 1: Catch The Smuggler**

_"Our Galaxy has billions of stars. Each of those stars could have many worlds. Every world could be home to a different form of life... And every life is a special story of its own, my dear.." _The Stargazer explained to the young child on his side.

_"Tell me another story about The Shepard!"_

The Stargazer looked at the child with a smile. His eyes gazing at the sparkling face of his young offspring _"No."_

_"..." _

_"Shepard has died. But the impact the Commander had left upon our Galaxy could still be felt to this day, child. It is getting late... But I will tell you another story. It might not be much exciting as the last one, but nevertheless it deserves to be told for it was the next important step of our understanding of the Galaxy. It takes place after the events of our last story. 15 years, to be exact."_

This is a story about a particularly different man. Who lived his life as a mercenary for hire in the Sahrabarik star system. He was employed by many people, the ones with loose ends and untied knots, the kinds who hired others to do their dirty work. He had experience and proffession... A perfect man for just about anything, if you had the credits for it.

His name was Noel Degas. The man originated from Hebos, one of the phew terraformed planets for human colonists, among the ones which appeared right when the Reaper war ended. He captained a light spacecraft vessel of the name 'Nautilus' a hand-crafted gift from his late uncle. The ship was small and so was the crew. Besides the man in charge was his assistant and pilot, Buck. A young man, who joined him just recently, looking for a better place to stay, other than the merciless streets of Omega. He was a good kid and a damn good pilot, but other than that he still lacked experience in many different categories, like being smart, for instance.

"So, is there a plan B, Cap'n?" The young pilot grinned nervously, glancing to the side and ignoring his captain's death glare.

"Boy, when we get out of this, I swear, someone WILL get hurt." Noel warned, trying desperately to free his hands out of the stiff metal cuffs he was in. He knew it was in vain, but worth a shot, you never know with the things they have nowadays.

Behind them, an armed krogan interrupted Noel by shoving him after noticing his fidgeting "Cut that out, Blue Sun scum! You don't have to free yourself to earn that priviledge."

Noel scowled at the laughs he was getting from the group of Blood Pack mercs. "For gods sake, we're NOT Blue Suns! How many times should I repeat myself?!"

"Yeah!" Buck agreed.

"Lies!" One of the Blood Black vorchas exclaimed "We know your tricks all too well, Blue Sun! If you weren't one, you'd know better than to set foot on Blood Pack territory."

"How are we supposed to know we took a wrong step? Is there, like, a map or somethin' that points the exact tiles of your made-up little playgrounds? We did nothing wrong! **You **lead us to it." Buck blurted out.

The vorcha shoved his back with its rifle "Quiet, human! Walk or I will roast your flesh!"

Buck continued his pace silently. It was his fault he did this, and it was killing him... quite literally. Their mission was to bring back a Blue Sun faction member, who gone rogue after one of his employers were informed that he's delivering a portion of their paid cargo to the rivals, the Blood Pack. It was a batarian, last seen in the lower wards of Omega, which are known by many for having Blood Pack activity. Usually, the more denser areas of the wards are populated by the normal human and asari citizens, trying to make a living as best as they can. This was the first place to ask around for any info. But to ask the only vorcha that stood out from everyone else, explain the whole story to him, and actually BELIEVING him that he'll help was the worst possible mistake. Who knows what will happen to them now.

"Wait a minute... Isn't there a truce going on between you guys? Cause of the Eclipse's taking over the top, I heard..." Buck asked the mercs, remembering the rumors he was told about.

"Not anymore. Haha!" The krogan answered with pride. "Now that we know you were spying on us the whole time..."

"Which we weren't..."

The krogan let out an angered growl at the interruption, but then relaxed and smiled at the two miserable humans "We'll see about that."

"Really?!" The young pilot asked, lifting his eyebrows at the krogan.

The brute alien nodded "By leaving you at our leader's mercy."

The two captured men exchanged questioned glances.

"Don't get your hopes up just yet! The best you get from him is to be killed right on spot." The vorcha capturer informed.

They marched their way out of the crowded wards to find theirselves at even lower deserted levels. Soon enough, they arrived to the alleys filled with gangs of mercenaries, with the signature Blood Pack markings located on their red-colored armor and shoulder pads. The more deeper into the alleys they walked, the more members followed them, exchanging grins and looks of astonishment and interest. Some caged varrens could've been heard, barking at the event at hand. There were times when this company was considered somewhat useful to Omega's society, especially at the time of the Reaper war. But now they're just a bunch of pirates and criminals, struggling to survive with whatever it is they got left.

Soon they reached a dead end. In front of them was a different-looking group of armed mercs. They were all wearing considerably heavier armor, with the exception of one, who stood out the most. It was the leader. The one thing to note about him was his really tall physique, and that, unlike any of them, he had a very unique-looking light armor. Shades of red with signature Blood Pack marks were surrounding the top layer of the armor, behind the armor, it seemed the alien wore an enviro-suit that covered his whole long torso and legs. He wore a helmet too. It had a mouth port in the lower center, like the ones of a quarian. The light shaded metal around it gave great emphasis across the whole jawline, down to the bottom of the long neck. It also had a thin orange visor throughout the eye area, but the eyes weren't visible. His face was a complete mystery. It was strange and so was his body. The most unusual were his arms which were so long, they were reaching the tip of his knees. What is this? Is it some form of a brute salarian or a very very intelligent vorcha? It's bizzare either way. The alien was staring at the two captured men, tilting his head to the side.

They were human. Unarmed as far as he can tell. The one on the right was young, that of a skinny build and an average height. He was wearing no armor at all, just a dirty brown shirt and trousers. His face showing a bemused look, those hazel eyes staring with concern to the people in front of him, drops of sweat falling down from his short buzz-cut.

The other one on the left was older and considerably tall, an almost intimidating stature for a kind like his. He had grizzled black hair of a lenght down to his neck. A full grown beard across his jaw and mouth area. His haggard face was showing signs of anger and disgust. His whole body was equipped with an old armor plating, almost as if it was belonging to the Alliance. On top of the armor layer, the man wore a blue longcoat which was complementing his stature fairly well, all the way from the round collar around the neck to the bottom height of knees. On top of his head was a **blue** ten-gallon hat with a small black stripe around it, which made the leader snort out a laugh.

"Sir..." The krogan beside Noel delivered a brief salute at the leader, which seemed to catch his attention. "We found these two humans sniffing around the wards. They were searching for Gal Vont, sir."

"How interesting..." The leader said amusingly, with an accent similar to that of a vorcha, it was alot more smoother though. He took his time to analyze the two and then turned around, revealing a batarian in a Blue Suns armor, behind him "Are these yours people, Gal?"

The batarian did not pay attention, he was busy with the company of two asari maidens on his lap and a bottle of a strong dextro drink on a table, in front of him, which had a handful of beverages and other miscellaneous piles of mess on it.

"Gal? Oh, Gaaal!" The leader called out, but didn't seem to put much effort into interrupting the distracted batarian. Buck struggled not to laugh at the name.

"Sir... If I may..." a voice could've been heard from the crowd of mercenaries.

The leader turned his attention at the voice "Yes... Go ahead, Paako!"

"They are scum. They don't deserve to be judged for what they did!" The vorcha capturer, Paako, stepped up.

The leader let out a small laugh. "And why is that?"

"They know to much, sir. The Blue Suns were planning this from the start. They were spying on us, like the filthy Turi-man-tarian***** trash they are! I say we skin them, AND BURN THEM ALIVE!" Paako announced. (*Turian, Human, Batarian)

The enthusiastic words of the vorcha were accompanied by loud roars and cries of agreement from the rest of the Blood Pack company. The two captured men could feel the horrific vibes of the shouts, spinning in their gut. It was fear-inducing.

The trembles of the tremendous noise were slowly fading, with a reason. Cause the one who initiated it was laying dead on the blood-stained ground. Silence has spread throughout the whole area in a matter of seconds. The leader deactivated his omni-blade and swept some blood on his armor. All that was heard was a small whimper, by a nearby baby varren. The leader looked at the small creature acutely, putting a finger on his mouth port with a calm 'Shhh'. The little baby varren nodded and nervously hid itself behind its mother's side.

"Brothers... THIS is why we can't have nice things." The leader delivered a strong kick to the vorcha's corpse, making it flip to the side "Being like poor old Paako here is what lead us to the bottom of this rotten shithole in the first place. Don't let your instincts get the best of you! How many times have I made this clear?"

As he continued his speech, Buck drew himself closer to his older ally "This is crazy, cap'n. We have to get out of here!"

"No shit. I'm working on it..." Noel whispered, scanning the area. "The place is less guarded on the roofs. If we get there we might have a chance to escape."

"Yeah but... What about these stupid things?" Buck gave a glance at the cuffs.

Noel mumbled something unintelligeble, looking down at the ground. His face revealing a small instance of eureka after finding the solution "I'll handle it."

Buck gave him a questioned look.

As Noel looked around, his eyes met the visors of the Blood Pack leader. "I believe you have a name..."

Noel furrowed his eyebrows and snorted "Nice observation."

"What? Since when did your kind start being so repulsive!? I swear, you people are getting more annoying every day. No one wants to cooperate anymore..."

"If that's the case, you should probably work on the hospitality you have down here."

"No. I hate humans."

Noel lifted an eyebrow at the offensive statement "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be, Mr. Degas. They aren't much likeable to me. It's not your fault you happen to be one of them..." his tone gave away the vile smirk he hid behind the mask.

Noel glared at him.

"Look at you. Just like my sources describe you. Wearing that long coat over the armor, with the signature cowboy hat and everything... What's with the choice of color? You're like an elcor in a pool of salarians. No wonder they took you for a Blue Sun clan." The leader chuckled with a few playful slaps on Noel's cheek. "Oh, Mr. Degas... My name's Arxin. it's a pleasure to have your acquaintance. Cheer up! You are too valuable to die just yet. Can't say the same for your friend though, but he might be of some use as well. We'll think of something."

Buck gulped.

"Now, back to your third... companion." Soon enough, the alien turned away from Noel and walked up to the table where the drunk batarian was sitting next to "Gal, my friend, you dissapoint me. I thought we had an agreement."

"Huh?" The batarian looked at him dumbfounded, he tilted his head to see the two captured men in the distance. "What are you talking about, A.R.? I don't know those people."

"You will now." The leader, known as Arxin, exclaimed.

"What?" Gal slurred, still not having the slightest idea about what's going on.

"You've been caught sniffing the wrong side of the sand, if you know what I mean." Arxin gently pushed away the two asari maidens from the batarian's laps, to meet his four-eyed gaze.

The batarian responded with silence. All of his eyes spacing away from the leaders stare at nothing in particular. He didn't move a muscle out of the genuine state of confusion he was in.

Arxin leaned closer at Gal's side "That's right. What am I to do with this, Gal? Your friends back home think you betrayed them. Now they'll say **I **am the cause of it. Probably wont stop 'till we're both lying dead in their coffins... We're in a bad position here. Any idea for a good explanation about this little misunderstanding?"

Gal's face was blank. He didn't reply.

"I'll tell you how I see it." Arxin uttered, shifting himself onto Gal's lap in a laying down position. Putting one of his arms over the shoulders of the batarian. "Killing you wont do us any good. I think the best way of dealing with this, is to put you, and these men, to safety until the tides calm down."

"..."

"Or... We make a bargain with the Suns... But... Nah, who would like to pay ransom for a scoundrel and two freelancers who failed their objective... hmm..."

"..."

"Yup. Looks like you're stuck with us. Don't worry, after some tough-love Blood Pack training... You'll be one of us in no time. A batarian here, two humans there... Its good to be getting some more variety in the community, no?" The leader laughed maniacally, but paused in the middle of it, to look around hastily at his mercs who were still standing around with silent astonishment. One of the mercs gave out a small nervous laugh, followed by more smaller chuckles, and then a bit louder and confident ones. Eventually the whole company burst out into a pool of laughter, for their leaders sake.

"Man, our new boss is already losing it..." One of the younger krogan mercs whispered to another.

"To recruit a human, let alone a batarian... What's worse, all of them members of the Blue Suns!? I don't like it, not one bit." The other krogan replied harshly.

"I wonder what Gorm will do when he sees this..."

"Heh... You'd WISH he could see it."

"You don't mean he's..." The young krogan hesitated, furrowing the ridges above his eyes which were probably a krogan equivalent to brows.

The other krogan nodded "Yup. Blind as an asari prophet. His eyes were dug out out of his sockets. Least, that's how I heard the fight went down between them."

"Damn... Getting his ass handed to C-Sec after THAT... Must've been a day worth a century. How long till they release the old pyjack?"

The other krogan laughed "Good question. I'd probably go extinct, before I know the answer, myself."

"Its really **that** serious? Geez..." The younger krogan grumbled.

"If Arxin goes on like this, I swear we shou- HEY!"

Noel pushed the krogan away, tripping himself in the air. Brushing past the vorcha corpse in mid-air, he landed with a loud thump on the ground stumbling a few feet away from the inertia. Soon enough he was pulled up by the angry Blood Pack mercenary pointing a gun to his face. "You wanna die, human?!"

"Tell it, to THOSE maniacs back there!" Noel shouted.

The krogan turned around questioningly, eyeing the distracted crowd of mercs which were taking their act a little too far, he wouldn't find the thrower in a million years. "WHO DID- Bah... **You** better get back to where you were... And make sure you stay there!" The krogan shoved Noel back to his accomplice.

"Alright enough... ENOUGH!" Arxin ordered his mercs. The continuous laughs, shoves and happy headbutts were slowly beginning to fade. He was still laying at the laps of the batarian who did not respond ever since. "I just need to know if you are okay with this, my friend."

"..."

"Gal?"

"B...B-b-bl..."

"B-b-b-what? I guess-"

"B-b-b-BLAAARGH" The batarian responded, forcing out a large mass of bile which was consuming in his body for a long while now.

The Blood Pack leader cursed loudly, stumbling down at the ground. When he jumped back up, he was greeted by the genuine out-of-control laughs of his mercenaries. Out of anger, he grabbed the batarian punched him and threw him straight at the crowd. "Shut up and lock them up!" He ordered trying to keep his calm demeanour from the embarassing state he was in. "Do the same if any more of them show up!" With that he left the mercs, joltly shutting the door of one of the buildings that wrote _Do Not Disturb!_ on the back. Probably his own courters.

The two men and the batarian were now trapped in one of the empty cages, which served for domesticating wild varren, they figured as much because they were surrounded by the growling creatures.

"Shalk wishes you good night." One of the vorcha mercs teased, locking the cage and shutting the exiting the room full of caged varren.

"They're going to keep us here like animals." Buck said through his gritted teeth.

"Focus, Jeffson!" Noel ordered, making the younger man look at him in confusion.

"What do you mean, focus!? Its all my fault we're trapped in this stinking place. God, I probably deserve to die here... Out of all the- Hey what are you doing!?" Buck turned his head around.

Noel was sitting behind him, with his back turned. Buck looked down and with a few clicks, his hands were free. "Woah, how did you..." He looked at the older man's cuffed hands. Between Noel's gloved fingers hanged a small metal key. Ancient as the cuffs Buck was in.

Buck's face was in delight "You got it from that dead vorcha?! H-How? That's freaking incredible."

"Its just biotics and careful planning." Noel said sternly.

"You're a biotic? I didn't even know you had it in you. Nice one, boss." Buck smiled, uncuffing the older man.

Noel stretched his wrists and threw a light punch at the younger man's head. "Thanks, Jeffson."

"Ow... Yeah I... I deserved that." Buck moaned, massaging his temple.

The batarian, Gal, laughed beside them and commented something gibberish at the two.

Noel sighed and knocked Gal unconcious, he was getting looks from Buck. He cocked his head at the boy "It's better to have him in this condition."

"Admit it. You just like punching people don't you, cap'n." Buck grinned.

Noel responded with a light smirk, which convinced the young man to bring up his poker-face.

"Dinner time!" The previous vorcha popped out of the door, holding two buckets filled with meat. Loud barks of hunger and impatience were coming from the surrounding varren. "Shalk sorry for forgetting. Tonight you get double meal."

The vorcha walked up to each cage, and threw small chunks of meat from the buckets. He finally aproached the cage where the three prisoners were at. "Would human like varren or vorcha meat?"

Noel didn't bother to respond. With his body emanating a biotic aura, he managed to throw the surprised vorcha into a wall, injuring its back, then quickly pulling the alien towards him with massive energy, making it lay unconcious with it's bruised head stuck between the steel bars of the locked cage. Noel noticed a ring of keys sticking out in one of the vorcha's pouches, so he managed to pull them into his hands with the last of his biotic strenght. He started to wonder why do the people use such ancient tools. Steel cages, keys, cuffs, even some armor and guns... Its like they missed the last two centuries. Are these people really that broke? Then again, the Reaper war wasn't too long ago. It did dramatize a lot of things within the Omega Nebula. Not that it wasn't as bad to start with. But the arrival of the Reapers on it was the worst thing that could possibly happen. The economy is still in crysis. Many things are being rebuilt to this day. Even though the new salvaged reaper technology did help out a lot, it still takes more than a decade to patch the whole galaxy up to the level it was before. Its a mess.

Noel snapped out of his line of thought and turned to Buck "Did they take the omni-tool you had?"

"Uhm..." Buck held up his arm and the omni-tool popped up, making him raise his eyebrows in surprise "No! It's here... but I don't think it'll be much of a use right now."

"No, that's perfect. I was thinking we oughta use those manual flight control add-ons it had installed." Noel said, unlocking the cage.

Buck's eyes widen. "Y-You wanna bring the ship all the way down here?!"

"Yes. Use the new cloaking systems too. I want it right on the roof of the closest building." Ordered Noel while cuffing the unconcious batarian and vorcha.

"Yes, sir." Buck clearly responded with a few taps on the holo-screen.

Noel noticed the surrounding varren were starting to make noise. "How much time do you need?"

"I don't know... About 10 minutes at least." The pilot's fingers were speeding around all over the place.

"By chance, make it quick. These bastards are getting loud. Come on, lets get out of here!" Noel dragged the unconcious body of the batarian out of the cage, Buck following him.

Noel brought up the batarian on top of his shoulder, the alien wasn't weighting much even with the armor on, which was a plus to him. He noticed two ways out, one was through main door, the other one was throgh a small window. He chose the latter. He didn't see any guards on his way in, its not that dangerous. "Stay behind me, boy!"

He was right. No one else was on guard in the building, so far. They managed to sneak their way up on the roof without a problem.

"It's almost here..." Buck informed.

"Alright." Noel put down the unconcious batarian, stretching his arms and back afterwards. "This is the last time I'm having you going around anywhere with me. You hear?"

"Yeah..." Guilt could've been heard in the pilot's tone. "I apologize, sir. It wont happen again. Can I still get to fly the Nautilus?"

"Keep praying, boy." Noel mumbled, reaching down to one of his pockets, revealing a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He placed a joint on the side of his lips and lit it, peeking down at the small army of Blood Pack mercenaries on the ground. "Sons of bitches. One of these days, Jeffson, they will get what's coming to them. The vorcha, krogan, batarians... All of them'll pay."

Buck glanced at the man with a slight amusement. "All of them? What for? With all due respect, I'm not seeing any difference between them and us, sir."

"Then you must be blind, Jeffson. These guys are a bunch of animals. Any person with a knack of awareness would've noticed that _**just by the sight of it**__!"_

"Look, I'm sorry! What else am I supposed to say?!"

"Nothing, Jeffson. You saying something is what got us here in the first place."

"We have what we came for and I'm doing my best to get us out of here. Stop twisting the knife for cripes sake."

A small moment of silence passed by between them.

Noel's eyes narrowed. He sighed "Yeah... well.. I'm just really dissapointed, boy." He tipped his cowboy hat up "This could've gone a lot more smoother if I went in alone. Haven't you grown up in this place? I thought you knew better than to just run around and mindlessly exchange information with an obvious enemy."

They both exchanged glances and Buck let out a sigh too "...Sorry for being stupid."

"And I'm sorry for spilling all of that to you. There." Noel let out a weak smile. It was obvious that it was an apologetic joke to his earlier outburst.

Buck snorted, with a few taps on the holo-screen "Alright, its here."

The cloaking systems faded away and revealed a small blue space vessel that was located near the roof.

"Good job." Noel nodded gratefully at the young man, picking up the cuffed unconcious batarian on his shoulder again.

"THEY ESCAPED!?" A surprised krogan's voice was heard from down below.

Noel peeked down again with a smile. He flicked his cigarette and it bounced off the krogan's nose. The krogan and the other mercs looked up and were greeted by the sight of their prisoner saluting a goodbye. Their eyes widen "UP THERE!"

A couple of mercs start shooting the roof with their guns while another squad quickly rushed into the building. The krogan reached his shotgun and shoved a few more of the vorcha into the door "GO GET THEM, PYJAKS! THEY HAVE NOWHERE TO-"

A large shadow left the krogan at a loss for words as he looked up, he only managed to get a small glance at the space ship before it left his view with a small *whoosh*. The krogan stood there in awe for a moment, then he reached the nearest vorcha and started headbutting the life out of it.

"Now set a course to Hebos." Ordered Noel.

"Hebos... Hebos..." Buck slapped a few holographic buttons on the console, finding the destination. With the final tap on the screen, his crossed hands rested theirselves behind his head "All set."

Noel playfully scratched the young pilot's head. "All is forgiven, Jeffson."

"Thanks, boss." Buck smiled proudly. _I'm finally getting out of here. I can't believe it!_

* * *

**A/U: Well that was a long start. But that's it for the first chapter, I'll see you around whenever I feel like updating this. Cause I'm lazy. This took me like a month to finish. Hopefully that'll change, cause I plan to make the upcoming chapters a bit shorter. It was still fun, I think it turned out pretty well and I hope you like it...? Give me feedback! Now!**


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